Banter

With help from Bill Bruton

Those who know me know I am a big Tull fan, yes still blowing it out, great shows this summer again. One of the things that makes a Tull show a great experience is Anderson’s banter between songs, creating a connection with the audience. And so it is in sales, the greater your ability to create a connection with buyers, the greater success you will have. What’s the connection between sales and Tull -> BANTER, master the elements of BANTER, and you will increase your sales and client loyalty:

Budget
Accountability
Need
Timelines
Execution
Review

Over the next few posts we will look at each element, how to prepare, utilize and execute. As with most things in sales these may not be new to everyone, the goal is to put a focus on some specifics and help link them together for maximum impact. I’ve said it before, when it comes to sales, the wheel has been invented, the question is how you spin it.

Budget – It goes without saying that without budget, there is not much likelihood of a sale. But many sales people forget that there are different types of budgets, and budgets can be created even where at first they may not exist.

At the core, the two different types of budgets are capital and operating. Knowing which is the most common used to purchase your product helps one position their product in a way that aligns with the specific budget. Knowing this should also help you think about how to position your product as something that can also fit the other class. Specifically if your product is usually bought through an operating budget, and you are working with a prospect who has no operating budget left, you still have choices. One is to be able to move the discussion to how you product can be made to qualify as a purchase from the capital budget. This may not work for all products, but it does in others, it just takes a bit of understanding of the buyers’ environment, priorities, and buying process.

A second factor is the language you buyer speaks. If they are accustomed to spending capital budgets and you persist on presenting your product as something that is understood by the buyer to be an operational in nature, you could end up facing an unnecessary barrier. Based on the situation and your research, it is important that you describe and define things in a way that helps the buyer understand and perceive your offering as something that does fit into their budget, in this case capital.

There is also the reality that some people are given a budget and once allocated or spent, it is done. They cannot create new budgets, and in some cases lower down in the decision tree, they may not even be able to reallocate budget without permission from above, which sometimes requires a massive case plan that many see as not being worth their time. But there are those in organizations who can reallocate budget with ease, further they can create budgets and make unplanned purchases. These are usually people at the higher end, I guess commonly called the ‘C’ Suite. I know I have sold to Sales VP’s who initially swore up and down that they had no budget for training, then based on validation of the results Renbor has been able to deliver, went ahead. I have seen the same with CFO’s who saw efficiency gains by buying an application; VP’s of Operation who chose to contract with an outsourcing organization based on specific returns and payback periods. Key as always is the ability to deliver.

Accountability – It is important to remember that accountability is multi-directional. In sales a primary accountability is that of the vendor to the customer. Some of this is simple as motherhood and apple pie, which it is less about the definition, and more about the delivery. Talking about accountability is one thing demonstrating and living by it is a different challenge. The commonly accepted tactic of “under promise and over deliver” is one example, but a common one that can help a long way is the way we as sellers deal with problems before and after a sale. No one is perfect; the test is in how we handle issues when they arise, studies have shown that buyers consider how problems are handled as a key balance to price. If you are accountable, deal with issues, and save the customer time and money in resolving them, you can usually expect that the buyer will be less price conscious, as they are realizing savings and value in other forms.

This takes us back to budget for a second. Another form of accountability is who is your buyer accountable to internally. A senior person, who has power and can play above the rules, can also be the ones who can create or easily redirect funds. We have all sold to senior buyers who stepped outside the buying process to make things happen. They saw that they were accountable for the success of the company or their group, you are accountable for helping them see the real value that will make them take the step. Even last year as budgets were slashed or removed, these people were buying those things they saw as critical for their companies’ success. All this of course results from the quality of the interaction between you and them, the interactive nature of the sale, the banter. More on Wednesday.

Note of a change:

Up to this point I posted on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. The comments and feedback I have received suggest that readers have less opportunity to read the Saturday post. Moving forward I will post Mondays – Sales eXchange, Wednesdays and Fridays. If you still need your fill, I also contribute weekly to Sales Blogcast’s Mindshare, and monthly to The Sales Bloggers Union.

I love extreme sports, extreme travel and extreme radio. Late in the night, I listen to those coast-to-coast syndicated programs where everything is either a government conspiracy or a supernatural phenomenon. I love those freaks; they make me feel so normal and centered, and at times provide just the excuse I need not to do something I really should be doing. After all, why bother if the Martians are about to land and vaporize all my prospects.

So it was the other night, when the pundits got around to talking about Déjà Vu. (I know I had the same feeling.)

One of the theories put forward by one of the time travelers was that when you have a Déjà Vu experience, it is an occurrence of our universe colliding with a parallel universe, hence the feeling. While I was trying to figure out if Trevor in the other universe was also listening to the same pile of radio, it struck me that the pundit’s theory could also be a great platform for sales excuses and copouts.

Can you just see it now? A manager talking to his rep about the sorry state of his funnel, asking why he hadn’t been prospecting, and the rep replies: “I was going to make some cold calls, but I am sure that my counterpart in a parallel universe already called that prospect. The prospect said he was happy with his current provider, so I figured it would not be a good use of my time prospecting his counterpart in our universe.”

When you think about it, there are a number of other examples where sales people turn to the paranormal for success. Ever watch reps who spend part of their time door knocking to gather leads and prospects, it is a true display of clairvoyant powers. Without opening the door, or at times without even touching the building, they can divine whether there is an opportunity inside or not. No Seriously, I have seen this. A rep is tasked with covering a specific street in his patch, but as you watch them, you notice that they skip certain doors; and when you ask them why, they look at you and with straight and serious face tell you:

“Oh, there is nothing going on in there.”“How do you know, have you called on them before?”
“No, I just know”

They have to be clairvoyant, otherwise how would they know. But it doesn’t stop here, when they go back to the office and review the cards they have collected, they can tell simply by looking at a card which one is worth calling, and which one they can ignore. I ask:

“Did you make some notation on the back of the card that tells you that you don’t need to call this company?”
“No, I just know.”

Simply amazing. I often wonder how we could refine this skill or talent to where instead of know who is not going to buy by looking at a business card, you could tell who is going to purchase by looking at their business card. Now that would streamline and short cut things wouldn’t it. I hope that they are working on that in the parallel universe.

About Trevor Stevens

Trevor is a sales professional in numerous universes, but spend the majority of his time selling in this one. While not a blogger he does contribute when he has something to say.

Stuff like debate over how warm a lead needs to be before you take action. Mindless nonsense like the exact seven steps you need to hunt a whale.

We fight about the time of day to call a prospect and the best gimmicks to get our foot in the door.

It’s all miserable milk toast.

In our quest to be the “rightest”, we traded away our possibilities for greatness. We lost our passion for the outrageous.

That bothers me…..

We spend our time on a quest for formulas and the fairy tale gold at the end of the sales book rainbow.

Here’s a thought. Everything you’re looking for can be found by mastering the art of the outrageous.

Here are few things to get you thinking:
1. Outrageous Discipline

Do the right thing by your customers whether you feel like it or not. And do it 10,000 times in a row. Do it when you’re sick or tired. And especially when you’re sick and tired. You do not let your emotions limit your ability to perform. You do not accept excuses, failure, or the obstacles that are in front of you. You are disciplined. Maniacally.

2. Outrageous Empathy

Care. Sometimes that means you cry. I mean this so very seriously. Stop being so selfish and look around you. Your prospect is more than a money bag. What other profession creates formulas for systematically using people. Maybe prostitution. Can you think of anything else? We subscribe to use-and-abuse tactics rather than risk being vulnerable to really deeply, truly invest in the success of our customers.

3. Outrageous Curiosity

Learn — more, better, faster…. Find out the answer even when one doesn’t exist. Put together a solution even when the organization says that you need to wait until the next version comes out to solve that problem. Be dedicated about the “why”. And not just a phone call to the tech dudes or a whining whimper to your sales manager. How about an insatiable zest for solving the impossible – even when an excuse is easier.

4. Outrageous Effort

Nothing equalizes talent or experience like massive mind-blowing effort. It’s more than doing an 8-6, five days a week. It’s about thousands of hours of deliberate practice. About doing the small things that hardly get noticed. About going the extra marathon. This is the most important aspect of outrageous activity. It’s all about you gutting it out.

Let’s start a revolution for outrageous activity.

It’s an art. Your life is the canvas. The opportunity is greatness.

Aren’t you tired of ridiculous webinars about the difference between cold calling and warm calling?

Master the art of the outrageous…

About Daniel Waldschmidt

Dan is partner in a private equity technology accelerator and a former technology CEO. He is an early-early-early adopter of game-changing technology. He blogs regularly on his popular motivational selling blog Edge of Explosion and is a popular inspirational speaker. He is husband to a cute gal named Sara and father to two energetic boys. He’s just an ordinary dude who happens to have an outrageous vision. And he wants to change the world…

I always appreciate Tibor’s blog posts on cleaning out the pipeline, focusing on real business. He always seems to find the right time to remind us to do this, In January, he encouraged us to Clear Out The Clutter, can’t start the New Year with garbage in our funnel. In March, he reminded us of Spring Cleaning. I’ve been anxiously waiting his third quarter post and reminder.

I agree with Tibor, over the course of time, sales people tend to let their pipelines get cluttered. Opportunities that looked good a couple of months ago are languishing. Deals we hoped for are no longer there. Somehow, stuff just starts piling up. Tibor is always diligent in reminding us to clean things up, focusing on real opportunities and good business.

Somehow, though, in the back of my mind, Tibor’s quarterly reminders have bothered me. Don’t get me wrong, Tibor is absolutely right, but somehow the fact that he has to remind us every quarter means that we haven’t gotten something right.

Somehow, it seems our pipelines and funnels have become repositories (some might argue similar to the all too familiar round file in our offices). But isn’t the funnel really supposed to be a tool that we use every day? The real value of the funnel is it gives us a snapshot at, any point in time, of the state of our business. I can look at my funnel and see:

Do I have enough opportunities to achieve my goals, quota, business plan?

Where are the big deals? What’s happening with them?

Are thing getting stuck? What’s causing that, how can I fix them?

Are there any emerging patterns or trends that give insight into my performance—for example, am I not qualifying correctly and letting a lot of bad deals waste my time.

Am I being as competitive as possible? What are my conversion and win rates?

What’s my sales cycle look like? What can I do to reduce it?

The list of things can go on. My point is the funnel is a key tool to help me assess my progress and keep me on target to achieve my goals. I look at it virtually every day and at least once a week I spend time looking at most of the issues I have outlined above.

Using your funnel like this means you have to have an accurate and updated pipeline. If you have it cluttered with all sorts of garbage, then it’s impossible to get an accurate assessment of your business.

So while I understand what Tibor is doing and why he encourages us to do Spring Cleaning (potentially soon the Summer Refresh), the fact that he has to remind us to do this means we are doing something wrong. It means that we aren’t using the funnel and pipeline as a tool to drive our performance. We aren’t using the funnel to help us win more business more quickly.

Tibor’s been rather polite giving us quarterly nudges. He really needs to be shouting at us, weekly, saying, “Don’t you get it, this is one of your most powerful productivity tools, why are you cheating yourself of the opportunity to perform at the highest level?”

A clean funnel is not next to Godliness, but a clean, accurate, updated funnel is the most important tool to keep you on target to achieving your goals.

About Dave Brock

Dave Brock is President and CEO of Partners In EXCELLENCE, a global consulting company focused on helping organizations achieve the highest levels of performance in sales, marketing, customer service and business strategy. He helps individuals and organizations develop and execute strategies to outPerform, outSell, and outCompete their competition. Dave is an internationally recognized speaker, writer, and thought leader in leadership, sales, value propositions, marketing, strategic alliances and partnering, business strategy and management. His blog is at www.partnersinexcellenceblog.com, follow him on twitter @davidabrock

One of the most effective things I did in my former role as a VP of Sales wasn’t my idea. (Story of my life…) A former colleague-turned-consultant talked me into it and facilitated what we called a Customer Advisory Council.

The group met for dinner, then formally for a long, full morning the next day twice per year. Nine customer decision-makers, my CEO, the facilitator and me attended, along with a guest or two as the agenda dictated. The stated goals of the “CAC” were quite simple:

Increase revenue and profit of all council members

Improve the efficiency and effectiveness of business processes

Share knowledge

Three customer members rotated off the CAC every six months and three new ones joined. (…except for two of them who insisted on “just one more meeting” for all 5 years I was with the company.)

By far, the single biggest challenge in running these sessions was finding enough time for each customer to adequately express his or her views. Very quickly, the customers told us we needed to restrict each meeting to one topic. They insisted on nailing down one problem at a time and designing specifications for a fix that we needed to implement ASAP. Allow me to re-phrase that just a bit… We got a bunch of customers to collaborate twice a year, face-to-face to define new services they wanted to buy from us yesterday.

Whoa! When I started my own sales consulting company, facilitating CACs was one of the first things we offered. We sold six of them right out of the gate. It was easy. The value proposition, not much more detailed than described above, was really, REALLY compelling.

All six failed.

They met either once or twice and then disbanded. I quit trying to sell the darn things. Too demoralizing. Even worse, I was charging good money to make my customer executives look very bad, very publically. Not a good strategy. How could such a great idea, which had worked so exceptionally well for me, fall so utterly flat on its face?

The depressing fact of the matter is that none of my customers could muster enough interest among their customers. Not one of them could get a quorum to attend. And it was not because these folks were dunderheads. They had all been profitably in business 20+ years and still are. Before you scoff and conclude you could pull it off easily, try getting your first meeting scheduled! Turns out I was so successful for one simple-to-say, difficult-to-do reason:

For ten years prior, the Founder & CEO had sustained an intense, unwavering focus on customer centricity.

Frankly, I doubt it takes ten years to earn enough credibility and respect to successfully implement a Customer Advisory Council. Maybe it’s only five. It’s undoubtedly more than one though.

But back to my original question… Why are CAC’s so rare? Is it because we “sales leaders” are inadequately skilled at thinking through and actually executing a legitimate long-term sales strategy? You tell me.

About Todd Youngblood

Todd Youngblood is passionate about continuously improving his clients’ sales processes. A long-time veteran of the sales war, he remains amazed at how much more he has to learn. Learn more at Todd Youngblood’s “SPE” Blog.

This is a blog post Tibor wrote towards the end of last year. It really captured my attention. On the surface, the idea is really very simple. But that doesn’t mean it is easy, and most things worth pursuing are not easy.

Tibor suggests that you eliminate your acceptance of the Pareto Principle, the 80/20 rule, and instead adopt the Shanto Principle, the 70/30 rule. This principle means not accepting that you will only have 2 great sales reps out of every 10, and that you should instead work to have 3 great reps out of every 10.

If your top 2 reps each account for 40% of your business, another sales rep that can equal their results would result in enormous improvement in your overall sales.

If you are in sales management, this means answering some tough questions:

How can you help to grow one of your 80-percenters and help them to perform at the highest level?

Would you be better off removing poor performing sales reps to free up the budget to hire a top 20-percenter?

What would this to do for your sales results?

Why should you accept the 80/20 rule? Are you not obligated to combat the 80/20 rule?

If you sell, know that the 20-percenters aren’t working to keep you out. There is no club and no secret handshake. You can strive, learn, improve, and work your tail off to get there just like they did. You don’t have to accept a place in the bottom 80%.

Answer these questions:

What do you have to do to extricate yourself from the bottom 80%?

Who would you have to be in order to take those actions?

What would it mean to you and those that count on you for you to be a top 20-percenter?

Recent research uncovered almost eighty reasons why customers dislike salespeople. Here are the top seven.

1. Not listening. This was the most cited reason customers dislike salespeople. Too many salespeople neglect to listen to what their customers or prospects say which means they fail to address the key issues that their customer has stated as being important. I remember an interaction with a couple of salespeople a few years ago. One of them asked some great questions to learn more about my particular situation. However, his counterpart did not listen to my responses, and as a result, his solution did not address my business challenges and buying requirements. In fact, his presentation was so far off base, I abruptly called an end to the meeting. Time is a precious commodity for people and when you don’t listen you disrespect your prospect.

2. Talking too much. It still amazes me how many salespeople think that telling is selling. I see this in virtually every type of sales environment from B2B to B2C to Retail. My personal belief is that your prospect or customer should do most of the talking in a sales conversation. Sales people react to this idea by saying, “But if they’re doing all the talking how can I sell my product?” The key is to let your customer do enough talking so that you can properly present a solution to their problem or situation.

3. Lack of knowledge. In today’s information-rich world, there is no reason for a salesperson to lack knowledge about the products and services they sell. I was recently impressed by the person who gave us an estimate on a new roof for our house. He knew his products and was able to speak intelligently about them and the differences between each. I know that the life-cycles of many products are very short and that many companies introduce new products at an alarming rate. However, if you don’t know enough about your products, you are going to lose your customer’s respect, and in all likelihood, the sale. Do yourself a favor and invest the necessary time learning about your products and services.

4. Lack of follow-up. Many sales people say they will do something and fail to follow through. This ranges from promising to get information to taking care of a problem or concern. Many people use this as a barometer before they make a final buying decision. Here’s how.

A potential customer asks for a particular piece of information and the sales person promises to deliver it by a certain date. The deadline passes and the prospect has to call and remind the salesperson. Because the sale has not been finalized, warning signals sound in the customer’s mind. After all, if the sales person is this slow to respond BEFORE the sale is made (the courting stage), how long will it take him to respond AFTER the sale?

Lack of follow up results in lost sales. A person contacts two or three companies about a particular item or project. All three submit a quote but only one makes the effort to follow up. Who is more likely going to get the sale?

5. Lying. “I don’t care about the customer and I’ll tell them anything I have to in order to get the sale.” Believe it or not, I heard this comment from a participant in one of my sales training workshops. Unfortunately, the number of sales people who lie or intentionally mislead their customers is staggering. This behavior includes; overstating the capabilities of your product, stretching the truth, or giving people the wrong information. Almost everyone has bought a product from someone who was less than truthful, and as a result, has become more skeptical with their buying decisions.

6. Failing to understand their needs. This is an extension of the first two reasons customers dislike salespeople. When a sales rep talks too much and listens too little, they don’t get a full understanding of their prospect’s situation. I have worked and interacted with thousands of sales people over the years, both as a trainer and a buyer. I can state without hesitation, that a mere twenty percent of them actually take the time to understand their customer’s needs, situation, concerns, etc. And it’s this group of individuals who are the most successful.

7. Refusal to take ‘no’ for an answer. Almost everyone in sales knows the importance of persistence. However, there is a fine line between persistence and stalking. While you shouldn’t drop your efforts after the first ‘no’, it is critical to recognize that you won’t gain anything by pressuring people. In many cases, the reason someone says ‘no’ is because they don’t see the value in your product/service or because they are not a highly qualified prospect.

Sales is an honorable profession. Stand out from your competition by avoiding these behaviours.

Kelley Robertson, author of The Secrets of Power Selling helps sales professionals close more sales at higher profits with less effort. Kelley conducts sales training workshops and speaks regularly at sales meetings and conferences. Contact him at 905-633-7750 or Kelley@Fearless-Selling.ca.

Your contact database is stuffed and your Rolodex overflows, but you still seem to miss your monthly quota. How is this possible? Most likely your shortfall can be traced to your lead management processes.

Even the best of sales leads have to be managed to close. Customers, like fish, don’t leap into the boat. They need to be actively nurtured to Yes.
This is the role of lead management and fixing these 5 common mistakes will help you consistently hit your number.

1. Email is Not CRM Software

This is unquestionably the top killer of sales leads. Email is a communication tool. Meant for short-term discussions or collaborations, not account management. It is not a tool to build sales relationships, with hundreds of clients, over numerous years.

Fact: the human brain can only manage so much information.

Your attempts at remembering to follow-up and diligently stay on top of hundreds of prospects and customers buried in your email is a guaranteed failure. Consistent top sales performance requires a system. A process or software that routinely automates some contacts and reminds you to personally reach out and make others.

2. One Call Closes are Fantasy

One call closes are the stuff sales legends are made of–the Boiler Room like close. But, real sales professionals know the probability of landing the inked deal on the first call ranks up there with winning the lottery. So, if you hit it be sure to celebrate, but don’t expect to pay your bills and feed yourself playing that game.

This is why a disciplined process of following up, on all prospects, is critical to success. Industry surveys show that the average sales lead takes a minimum of 5-7 contacts to close and generally requires 30-60 days (varying greatly by industry).
The important part thing to remember is not to get frustrated and toss out that two week old lead. Simply switch lead management gears on it and nurture it.

3. Sales People Can’t Pick Leads

The Call of the Wild fouls us up on this one too, our primal nature lures us to the biggest fish (whale) and the freshest meat (new lead). Two notoriously bad choices.

We can’t pick the right leads! We invariably gravitate to our biases, which typically works against our sales numbers.

Grabbing for the brass ring (tackling only the biggest accounts) and neglecting the opportunity to land a few small ones along the way, is the perfect example. Your sales management system might even help you create an ideal lead profile for your sales approach. You might be amazed at how different your “perfect lead” looks from your “preferred lead.”

4. Prospects Need to be Nurtured

Are you trashing valuable non-responsive customers? More so than ever, leads need to be effectively nurtured. Challenging economic conditions slows everyone’s buying decisions. Stay top of mind, so you will be first in mind when the pain or the need becomes right for the big buy.

This doesn’t mean just throwing all your old leads into the autoresponder. Smart sales people build a detailed follow-up plan that includes email, mail, and telephone. And don’t forget to add value at each of those touch points–an interesting article or report, an example of success, or best practices session.

5. Get My Next Lead Increases Sales Velocity

Often we forget that sales is really about numbers in the end.

How many times do we spend too much time organizing or getting ready to do something? The best strategy in most cases is to do as my Dad was found of saying, “Do something, even if it’s wrong.”

Simply getting onto the next lead will produce more sales than any other strategy. So, stop reading this and do something!

When Tibor asked for a guest post, I decided to read his article No Options simply because it was published on my birthday. As it happens, this resonated with me with regards to international sales.

No Options, More Sales

As Tibor says sales people go about selling in many different ways. And in his article he makes a case for not giving prospects any options during the sales process, but only giving them the one option they really need. This is a good case for “no options” bringing in more sales.

Consultative Sales Role

I agree with this to some degree and I’m sure there are exceptions. But it is easier to guide prospects towards the sale when they don’t have a choice. And this works particularly well when your sales role is a consultative role.

In my experience in international sales, the consultative role covers a wider spectrum. Because, in addition to selling, you also first need to establish what kind of sales tactics work best for your international prospects. How should you approach the prospect first? How does he like to be approached?

And when you work with a wide international audience you’ll change from one cultural environment to another, from one sales tactic to another. This means your attitude has to be flexible to adapt to each situation.

Constantly keeping your mindset ready and flexible might seem to go against “no option” selling, but it doesn’t. This flexibility actually drives you further into the consultative sales role.

Relationship Selling

When selling to people from different cultures you begin to build relationships at an earlier starting point. You have to. People don’t usually like to buy from people from different cultures. Some people even have issues selling to people from different cultures. There are always little cultural differences which usually mean you need to adapt your sales approach.

So one of the first things you need to do is to establish how to sell to each of your international prospects. This means listening and finding a way to establish a relationship. Relationships are how you overcome any barriers people may have. And these relationships are slowly deepened further during the international sales process so that the buyer and the seller are comfortable with each other.

These relationships usually lead to consultative selling. This means you’ll know more about your prospect’s needs and will be able to provide him with the single best option he needs.

Sometime watching sales people in action is like watching a tennis match; prospect asks something and we lob back an answer right away. Other times the prospect will make a comment, and we slam back an answer, at times with more top spin than one would ever need. While there are a number of good lessons in sports for sales people, a meeting should not look like the final match at a Grand Slam event.

There are a couple of reasons this happens and a larger number of factors that contribute to it, all of which can be controlled by the seller. One reason is we want to convey knowledge and confidence, and by “having the answer” we feel that we demonstrate this; not true. The second is the lack of a specific goal and related plan with respect to where and how we want the meeting to go and end.

About us

Tibor Shanto is a 25-year veteran of B2B sales, Tibor has developed an insider’s hands on perspective of successful sales execution. Called a brilliant sales tactician Tibor shows organizations and sales professionals how to leverage their sales process to shorten sales cycles, increase close ratios, and create double digit growth through execution and using the right combination strategy, tools, metrics, tactical execution of the sales process.